Maanum beauty preserves Arsenal’s slim WSL title hopes

Arsenal sustained their place in the Women’s Super League title race with a narrow 1-0 win over Leicester on Friday night.

Just four days after their cruel exit from the Women’s Champions League at the hands of Wolfsburg, Jonas Eidevall’s Gunners looked the much better side going forward, but a lack of finesse in the final third, as well as some admirable defending from the well-organised Foxes, meant it was more than an hour before the deadlock was broken.

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When the first and only goal was scored, it came right out of the top drawer; substitute Jodie Taylor located Frida Maanum, who curled in a beauty from the edge of the box to take her tally for the season to eight.

Arsenal stay fourth in the table – as a result of their fifth win in six league games – two points behind third-placed Chelsea, three behind second-placed Manchester City and six behind current leaders Manchester United.

Leicester, meanwhile, stay 10th, two points above bottom side Reading and having played one game fewer than the Royals.

How Arsenal rallied to keep themselves in the hunt

Leicester’s visit to Meadow Park came at the end of what had turned out to be a miserable week for Arsenal. The north Londoners had crashed out of the Champions League semi-finals in heart-breaking fashion on Monday and lost Laura Wienroither to injury during the game, with the Austrian becoming the fourth member of the squad currently sidelined with an ACL injury.

But if that night had taken a significant mental toll on the Gunners, it was not immediately apparent. They stepped on to their opponents from the off and were awarded a penalty inside five minutes, when Hannah Cain clumsily tripped McCabe. The latter then stepped up to take the spot-kick, only for Leitzig’s strong right arm to prevent her effort nestling in the bottom left corner.

Arsenal’s momentum did not dip, and they racked up nine shots by half-time. But they were clearly missing something in the final third and were left to rue several missed chances, one of which fell to Kathrine Kuhl, whose connection on a square ball from Victoria Pelova was too minimal to even trouble Leitzig, who was brilliantly protected by her backline.

Moments after Cain saw penalty appeals turned down after a coming together with the onrushing Sabrina D’Angelo, Arsenal finally drew first blood. Taylor chased a ball down the left channel and pulled the ball back for Maanum, whose peach of a shot seemed to hang in the air for an age before rippling the net.

The Norwegian international came close to making absolutely sure of the points inside the final 10 minutes when she rattled the crossbar with a curling free-kick, but in the end, her earlier effort proved to be enough.

Player of the match – Frida Maanum

The Norwegian became more of a threat as the game wore on at Meadow Park. As well as scoring the winner, she had the second best chance of the game when she hit the crossbar late on and took a match-high seven shots in total.

Eidevall: Huge challenge for us to bounce back from Monday

Arsenal head coach Jonas Eidevall:

“I knew it was going to be a tough challenge because I saw them play against Liverpool and beat them comfortably 4-0. This was a huge challenge for us coming from Monday, with all that that means, and to be able to perform again. All in all, we created some huge goalscoring opportunities, we missed a penalty and no one can say it wasn’t deserved that we won today.

“We always go to win, that doesn’t change. One game at a time, try to win it.”

Kirk: Arsenal deserved to win, but it’s a good barometer for me

Leicester manager Willie Kirk:

“I think it was a deserved scoreline, Arsenal deserved to win the game. I don’t think anybody can say otherwise, but it was a good barometer for me because my first game in charge was against Arsenal and we were lucky to get away with a 4-0 loss that day. It shows you the journey we’ve been on that we can come here and play against a team with that quality.

“Everybody is training really well and they have been for months, so it gives us nice options, nice problems. We made two changes today and that was to freshen things up and play in a different formation. We played the first three or four months in the same formation because it was all the players could handle mentally and we’ve now changed it a couple of times in the last three or four games and credit goes to the players for how they’ve taken on that information and the amount of options we’ve now got.”

What’s next?

Both teams are back in action on Wednesday May 10. Leicester travel to Kingsmeadow to face Chelsea at 7pm, while Arsenal go to the Broadfield Stadium to face Brighton at 7.30pm, in a game which is live on Sky Sports Football.